Tuesday 11 December 2012


Tasks about WWII at school

Today at school we got an opportunity to choose one of two tasks about WWII, and I chose the task about why the story behind why Norway has presented a large Norwegian tree each winter for over 60 years as a token of friendship and gratitude for Britain’s assistance during World War II.

The reason why Norway give the UK a Norwegian Christmas tree every year as a token of friendship, is because of the help which Britain provided for Norway during the WWII.
The Norwegian king migrated to Great Britain because it was the nearest safe country to Norway at that time. As you allready may know, the Germans failed to capture Great Britan, which is why UK remained independent and quite safe. 

A more detailed reason of why he moved is because of the Hitler's plan to capture Norwegian Royal family and the Norwegian government so that he could take over Norway and include. A German ship called Blücher and its crew were ment to accomplish this mission. But luckily enough, the Norwegians on "Oscarsborg", a Norwegian fortress with cannon and torpedo batteries, managed to sink Blücher, allowing the Royal family and the government to escape just in time before the Germans would manage to imprison them.
Another reason why a Norwegian Christmas tree is to be seen on Trafalgar Square, is perhaps less familiar than the one above.  Since the Germans lost "The Battle of Britain", UK remained an independent state, and also one of the safest in Europe when it comes to military training. Norwegian and Canadian soldiers, along with some other, were trained in Great Britain during the WWII.  

Source: I got this story from my history teacher in 9th grade. He didn't say this is the reason why we give a tree to UK for Christmas, he told only the part where the Norwegian sodiers got trained in the UK and the story about the Norwegian king migrating to Great Britain.